BlizzCon: Top 5 Reveals

There’s never a consensus on the biggest moment during BlizzCon. Probably because there’s simply so much to do, planned and unplanned. Due to the little wrinkle called life why don’t we stick with the biggest moments from the Opening Ceremony. You know, the thing that Blizzard spent months preparing and scripting for. Yeah, let’s do that.

#5 The Necromancer Rises Again
Sure, Frank Pearce announced a bit of a remake for Diablo, the original one. It’ll enable many to experience the twenty year old title for the first time discovering how we got to Diablo III. The reveal of a minor remake was a whimper to his later revelation, the confirmation of a new character class coming to the ranks, Diablo 2’s Necromancer. Fight at the gates of hell with an army made by the demons themselves. Raise the fallen, explode their bodies and shield yourselves with the bones of those too encumbered to escape death’s grasp.

#4 The Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
Listen, there’s few people in this world that have spent more time than I in Gadgetzan. I’ve always enjoyed the Goblin lore, the shady deals they excel in and their ability to play both sides. The Hearthstone team has taken the now port city’s untoward aspects and made it a new wrinkle in the deck-building strategy of the card game. I expect to lose Shaktaji to deck strategy thanks to the new tri-class cards and how they’ll shake up Hearthstone. Again. I’ll distract myself with the lore behind the Gadgetzan factions.

#3 Sombra ARG Comes to an End
The Mexican hacker extraordinaire was the worst kept secret at BlizzCon. This was for good reason, she was the focus of a long-running Alternate Reality Game leading up to today’s official reveal. We all knew it was coming but wow, did we underestimate how it would be revealed. Morhaime sucked us in with a year in review for Overwatch. Moments into the seemingly canned video and it skips a bit, then more aggressively. The crowd begins picking up on what’s happening and we’re pushed right into the animated short that finally, months in the making, brings Sombra to Overwatch.

#2 The Nexus Invites Varian Wrynn and Ragnaros
No one expected the ceremony to go by without a new hero being added to Heroes of the Storm. We’ve expected it every BlizzCon since the days of Blizzard All-Stars. It’s tough to top the tri-hero Lost Vikings or genre-breaking Murky for gameplay changes. Blizzard decided to hit the heartstrings bring – and my body is tingling as I type this – Varian Wrynn to the Nexus in an epic battle with Ragnaros. The trailer had the fallen king walk past the shattered remains foes foreign and known, including Arthas. He took up his weapon and a battle stance, then a defensive stance as Ragnaros, the Fire Lord, rose from the depths. We learned that Varian is the first multi role HotS character, capable of being a tank or DPS depending on the skills you chose. Then we were told that Ragnaros will be playable the month after Varian’s November 15 release!

The announcement of Overwatch League should not be understated. If they can follow through it will change #eSports dramatically. #BlizzCon

#1 Overwatch League to Shake up eSportseSports have never been hotter worldwide, but, regardless of the game, there have been cracks in its meteoric rise. Everything from a get-off-my-lawn ESPN employee (now former), gambling issues to employment agreements have distracted the new arm of video games hurting its credibility. Blizzard is going to do their darndest to coalesce eSports, to give it the sense of rigidity and oversight to bring it beyond just video games and into the mainstream. Ultimately, Blizzard hopes to see Overwatch athletes gain the respect of their professional peers. We can wait for 2017.

What did we miss? Do you think the Deep Mind x StarCraft API should have made the cut? What about new zones for D3 or the millions on the line for eSports? What do you think was the best reveal?